[Itagaki — LP: 4000 → 3000] “With its Level reduced from 6 to 4, Archfiend of Gilfer no longer requires a Tribute to be Normal Summoned.” Itagaki slapped the card onto his Duel Disk.
“I Normal Summon the now-Level 4 Archfiend of Gilfer!” A hulking fiend materialized on the field, its grotesque body wrapped in dark energy.
[Archfiend of Gilfer — ATK: 2200] Yusuke naturally recognized the monster.
Archfiend of Gilfer had been one of Yugi’s recurring monsters back in the original series.
Itagaki’s lackeys immediately started cheering behind him.
“He brought out Archfiend of Gilfer on his first turn!” “The boss is on fire today!
That kid’s screwed, hahaha!” Itagaki clearly enjoyed the timely flattery.
Grinning broadly, he thrust out an arm.
“Straight to the Battle Phase!
Let’s see what kind of worthless monster you’re hiding down there.
Archfiend of Gilfer, attack that Defense Position monster!” Archfiend of Gilfer opened its mouth and unleashed a swirling blast of darkness.
The face-down monster was struck and flipped face-up, revealing a small dragon with a golden mask covering its face.
[Masked Dragon — DEF: 1100] Masked Dragon shattered under the attack, but since it had been in Defense Position, Yusuke took no battle damage.
“Masked Dragon’s effect activates,” Yusuke said.
“When it’s destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, I can Special Summon a Dragon monster with 1500 or less ATK directly from my Deck.” His Duel Disk automatically searched the Deck and pushed out the appropriate card.
Yusuke drew it free and held it up.
“Masked Dragon itself has less than 1500 ATK, so I Special Summon a second Masked Dragon.” A second masked dragon appeared on Yusuke’s field.
[Masked Dragon — ATK: 1400] This was exactly why monsters with floating effects had been so highly valued in the early days of Yu-Gi-Oh!.
If you ran three copies of a monster that could replace itself with another copy when destroyed, it effectively gave you three layers of defense.
More importantly, there was a good chance one of those monsters would survive until your next turn, giving you Tribute fodder for a higher-Level monster and allowing you to seize control of the field.
“Pretty stubborn defense,” Itagaki muttered.
“Fine.
I Set one card and end my turn.” “My turn—draw.” Thanks to Masked Dragon’s effect, Yusuke had managed to keep a monster on the field, which meant he finally had the Tribute he needed to counterattack.
“I Tribute Masked Dragon!” The small dragon disappeared in a burst of light.
“Tribute Summon!
Level 6—the skeletal fiend who commands thunder through the power of darkness!
Come forth, Summoned Skull!” Golden lightning gathered overhead, tracing the outline of skeletal armor as the towering fiend descended amid crackling electricity.
[Summoned Skull — ATK: 2500] Itagaki’s expression shifted.
“You brought out a monster like that on your second turn?” Among duelists in the city, that might not have been particularly remarkable.
In Satellite, however, being able to set up a high-Level monster this quickly was already the mark of a capable duelist.
Since when had someone this good been living inside Fang Gang territory?
Yukine looked just as surprised.
‘Wait…
wasn’t Brother terrible at Dueling?’ Why did he suddenly seem so much better?
“Battle Phase.” Yusuke pointed forward.
“Summoned Skull, attack Archfiend of Gilfer!
Lightning Strike!” Electricity crawled across every section of Summoned Skull’s skeletal armor as the fiend gathered its power.
“You deserve some credit for finding a way to counter Archfiend of Gilfer this quickly,” Itagaki barked.
“But it’s still not enough to beat me!
When you declare your attack, I activate my Set card—Trap Card, Energy Drain!” The face-down Trap flipped open.
At the same time, waves of energy began streaming from the four cards in Yusuke’s hand and pouring into Itagaki’s Trap.
“Energy Drain lets one of my monsters absorb power based on the cards in your hand!” Itagaki declared.
“My monster gains 200 ATK and DEF for every card you’re holding!
You’ve got four cards, so Archfiend of Gilfer gains 800 ATK!” [Archfiend of Gilfer — ATK: 2200 → 3000] “As expected of the boss!” one of his lackeys shouted immediately.
“Now its ATK rivals the legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon!” Archfiend of Gilfer, which had been at a disadvantage only moments earlier, suddenly surpassed Summoned Skull.
Yukine’s heart leaped into her throat.
Her brother had finally managed to summon an ace as powerful as Summoned Skull.
If it was destroyed here, she couldn’t imagine how he could possibly turn the Duel around afterward.
Yusuke, however, calmly pressed a button on his Duel Disk.
“Then I’ll Chain my Set card.
Trap Card—Reverse Trap.” His face-down card flipped open.
“Until the End Phase, every effect that increases or decreases a monster’s ATK or DEF this turn is reversed.” Itagaki and every one of his lackeys stared at him.
“What?!” The clash between the two fiends had become a tug-of-war, their relative strength shifting back and forth in the span of only a few seconds.
In the end, Summoned Skull came out on top.
The enormous boost Archfiend of Gilfer had received from Energy Drain was twisted around by Reverse Trap’s effect, turning what should have been an 800-point increase into an 800-point decrease.
[Archfiend of Gilfer — ATK: 3000 → 2200 → 1400] Summoned Skull’s lightning crashed down.
Archfiend of Gilfer was destroyed.
[Itagaki — LP: 3000 → 1900] This wasn’t a Shadow Duel, so Itagaki didn’t suffer any real injury, but the Solid Vision impact accompanying the damage still forced him to throw an arm over his face.
Once the shockwave passed, he lowered it again with disbelief written all over his expression.
This kid had managed to bring out a monster strong enough to overpower Archfiend of Gilfer in a single turn, then immediately countered the Trap Itagaki had prepared to stop exactly that.
Something wasn’t right.
There was no way this was normal!
Since when had anyone this competent been hiding in Fang Gang territory?
Yukine was delighted to see her brother turn the tables so cleanly, but beneath that excitement was the same growing confusion.
She was starting to feel as though she barely recognized him anymore.
Reverse Trap wasn’t even a particularly valuable card.
It was the sort of common card someone might genuinely dig out of the junk piles around Satellite.
Most duelists understandably preferred cards that could simply increase their own monsters’ ATK or reduce the opponent’s rather than relying on something as awkward as reversing stat changes.
Still, that brief exchange had told Yusuke something important.
He studied Itagaki for a moment.
“By the way…” Itagaki frowned.
“What?” Yusuke looked genuinely puzzled.
“You’re kind of bad at this, aren’t you?” Itagaki’s eyelid twitched, and his face immediately darkened.
“Kid, what did you just say?” “I said you’re kind of bad at Dueling.” Yusuke sounded almost doubtful rather than insulting.
“You’re supposed to be one of the Fang Gang’s top duelists?
If that’s your level, then your gang might actually be pretty weak…” He wasn’t even trash-talking for the sake of getting under Itagaki’s skin.
He genuinely meant it.
Because if Yusuke had been standing in Itagaki’s position, there had been a perfectly simple way to prevent Reverse Trap from ever being activated.
During battle in Yu-Gi-Oh!, the declaration of an attack and damage calculation were separate timings.
Damage calculation in particular came with strict activation rules.
Most Trap Cards couldn’t simply be activated at that point, while effects that directly changed a monster’s ATK or DEF were among those that could.
That meant Energy Drain, which directly increased ATK and DEF, could have been held until damage calculation.
Reverse Trap couldn’t.
Itagaki had activated Energy Drain as soon as Yusuke declared his attack, which gave Yusuke the opportunity to Chain Reverse Trap and turn the entire situation around.
If Itagaki had simply waited until damage calculation before activating Energy Drain, Yusuke wouldn’t have been able to respond with his Set Trap.
The distinction might have sounded like some arcane piece of Konami rules-lawyering, but most experienced players from Yusuke’s old world understood the difference.
Itagaki, however, had completely botched it.
Actually…
Yusuke reconsidered.
Calling it a misplay might have been giving him too much credit.
Judging from his reaction, Itagaki didn’t seem to understand that there was any meaningful difference between attack declaration and damage calculation in the first place.
Maybe this wasn’t just an Itagaki problem.
Yusuke fell into thought.
‘Could it be that duelists in this world—or at least most of the ones here in Satellite—just aren’t very good at understanding the game?’